Indefinite break is over. Return to Vegas announced.

[CelineDionFreak]

LMBTL !!!!????!!!!!

Remember the lyrics video?

That's very true!!! Didn't think of that! I'm happy now! But she's not using the mic stand

[celine4evauk]

Rene won't be at opening night?? Posted in Celine topic 😢

[chocolatechip15]

It's palpable now! These 24 hours are going to kill me!

 

Isn't it more like 36 hours? Sorry

[A new day...]

According to Aldo René is not well and won't be attending the premiere in person...

 

This comes from the "Opening Night Ribbon Project" topic in the Vegas section. I'm so sad he won't be there to feel the energy.

[DionFanAlways]

Isn't it more like 36 hours? Sorry

Thanks Lisa............ Edited August 26, 2015 at 01:04 PM by DionFanAlways

[joaofilho]

This worries me, if Rene is not well, that kind of emotion can not be too good for him not who is in frail health, God bless.

[WindyCityCelineFan]

So excited for everyone that will be at opening night. Unfortunately I couldn't get the time off work, but I will be there in a couple of weeks to see the show on Sept 9th.

[kevincheung410]

http://8.t.imgbox.com/bNqDiq2D.jpg http://6.t.imgbox.com/CMlCoZGx.jpg http://0.t.imgbox.com/BUTPo4PS.jpg http://8.t.imgbox.com/ETQ4Ngza.jpg http://5.t.imgbox.com/0upc6Asb.jpg http://6.t.imgbox.com/3ln2kvOR.jpg http://2.t.imgbox.com/KqpMZW0v.jpg http://0.t.imgbox.com/1RNOCYE1.jpg http://3.t.imgbox.com/zMvD6cLo.jpg

[chocolatechip15]

I wonder if she's wearing one of Rene's shirts - it kind of looks like a man's shirt. That would be sweet.

[artistman2007]

I wonder if she's wearing one of Rene's shirts - it kind of looks like a man's shirt. That would be sweet.

yes but I'm sure that's not Rene's size:) lol

[mikecdfan]

She could have picked up where she left off, and most people would have been fine with that. Or at least understanding.

After all, Celine Dion shocked the world a little more than a year ago, when she announced a leave of absence from show business — including more than 40 scheduled dates at Caesars Palace — to devote her attention to husband-manager Rene Angelil's battle with throat cancer (and stress-related issues with her own voice).

Angelil's battle continues. In June, Dion told reporters the 73-year-old was hospitalized in Boston. But the singer and her show?

"As soon as I got here I felt it," director Ken Ehrlich said last week. "You certainly sense it in the hotel. You put your laminate on and walk around and people come up and talk to you. Especially the staff. There's an excitement ... 'Celine's back.' "

The Canadian superstar was set to reopen Thursday at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, unveiling a revised and updated showcase. Fans got the first hint the material itself would change when word broke in March that Dion had parted company with Claude "Mego" Lemay, the musical director who had worked with the 47-year-old singer since she was an 18-year-old unknown in Canada.

Ehrlich hasn't known her quite as long; only as long as most U.S. fans have been aware of her. His main gig is producing the annual Grammy Awards broadcast, and he staged her breakout "Beauty and the Beast" duet with Peabo Bryson on the broadcast in 1992.

The director said it was not his place to address the departure of Lemay and three other longtime band members, but he was happy to speak in spoiler-free terms about what awaits fans.

After all, it's not just Dion who returns.

"As we all know, Celine fans come back," Ehrlich says. The singer is one of the city's destination headliners; fans book vacations based on when she will be on the Strip. Repeat business "in a way kind of continues to signal her ability to change and shift with the times."

"If I had to put one line to what the differences might be, this show in a way, it's probably a little more up," Ehrlich adds. "A couple of things in the show were really down, personal moments, but they've been replaced by 'up' personal moments."

The family-photo montage set to Billy Joel's "Lullabye (Goodnight My Angel)" has been given an understandable rest, given the life drama playing out beyond the stage. Other songs outside Dion's catalog of hits — including the show-opening cover of Journey's "Open Arms" — also were considered fair game for swapping out.

But the new show still furthers the long-range vision of expanding the singer's appeal beyond her fading era of pop hits when she returned to Caesars Palace in 2011, to launch more than 200 shows. It was Ehrlich who coaxed her into scatting the Ella Fitzgerald classic "(If You Can't Sing it) You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)" and tackling a medley of James Bond movie themes.

The veteran TV producer returned to the Colosseum for his second live diva showcase when he helmed Mariah Carey's "No. 1 to Infinity." But Carey set off in the polar opposite direction, rewarding her career fans by lining up her 18 No. 1 hits, in chronological order.

"They have inner strength, both of them, and they both have vulnerability," Ehrlich says of his two divas. "With Celine, I think she was just ready and she wanted to do different things. I think with Mariah, there was kind of this comfort factor with the hits. She had a vision."

(When he did suggest opening out the show, or at least rearranging the order of the hits, "(Carey) shook her finger at me and said, 'That's not what we're here for, Ken.' ")

Compared to many an overstuffed diva showcase — including Dion's first Las Vegas effort, "A New Day" — the most recent show kept the music and song choices as the focus of attention rather than the costume changes.

That may be in part because Ehrlich sees a musical side of her that's often lost in her celebrity.

"She loves riffing," he says. During rehearsals, "She'll go into a song that has nothing to do with the show. She hears a phrase in the song we're rehearsing and starts playing with that. In the past, those have turned into things that have been done in her shows.

"There's a great sense of spontaneity, and she probably as much as any artist that I've worked with wants to keep things fresh."

Dion was so happy to be a first-time mother when her Colosseum career began in 2003 that in her interviews, the actual show sounded like an afterthought; creative decisions seemed like they were left to Angelil and others.

Ehrlich says he doesn't get that impression now. "We know this is a tough time for her but it's remarkable, this woman — and I've seen it time after time — she has incredible resolve. In a way, she wants to be the team leader. I've seen it in the past and I see it now," he says.

"It's like somewhere down deep she knows that at the end of the day, people are looking at her, the rest of us working with her on the show. And her strength radiates. That's what I'm seeing in the last couple of days of watching her come in, and see the musicians for the first time in a while and start working with new people.

"She's really something. She's a very special person."

Read more from Mike Weatherford at bestoflasvegas.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com

[isurrender]

Oh there's a acoustic set ! Only 3 background singers and 2 guitarists... ( I guess "At seventeen" was cut off as well, twice the same kind of staging would be weird...)

 

Wondering what is/are the song(s)....we know it needs background vocals ( another reason it's not "At seventeen").

[A new day...]

Thanks. I can't wait to know what the opening act will be. Maybe the fans videos of IDAN ?

[scielle]

Oh there's a acoustic set ! Only 3 background singers and 2 guitarists... ( I guess "At seventeen" was cut off as well, twice the same kind of staging would be weird...)

 

Wondering what is/are the song(s)....we know it needs background vocals ( another reason it's not "At seventeen").

 

I'm hoping for First Time Ever I Saw Yor Face. Such a beautiful song, and Celine's rendition of it is stunning.

[isurrender]

I'm hoping for First Time Ever I Saw Yor Face. Such a beautiful song, and Celine's rendition of it is stunning.

 

The way she is standing on the picture is definitely not "The first time".

 

Was thinking of "If you asked me too"... when she sings the end " I 've changed my mind" on the live version...

[CelineDionFreak]

 

 

The way she is standing on the picture is definitely not "The first time".

 

Was thinking of "If you asked me too"... when she sings the end " I 've changed my mind" on the live version...

That's very true! But we'll see. I would love IYAMT in the show!

[mikecdfan]

i think that she will open with LMBTL. Would make sense with everything that has been going on.

[tomdalbou]

(First post, but I've been stalking this forum for a couple of years... )

 

I really want her to open with LTAL. Like big time. One of my all time favorites and to me, it was a perfect opening number back in 1998-1999. I doubt they will choose that song to open the show, but I really wish she is gonna sing it sometime in the show.

Of course, I have some dreams just like all of you (TYLAM, for example...) but in a more realistic way, I wish that she's gonna sing LCMM just like in the 90's. Because, I can't stand her latest randitions of that song.

 

And finally, the encore could be TCOML. For Rene. But it might be too difficult for her to sing it these days.

 

But you know... At the end of the day, I don't really care, because I just want her to have a good time tomorrow night.

 

I feel so very sad for her and her family right now. I've been a fan for 20 years, and I feel like I'm loosing a family member.

I wish them the very best and the strength to go through all this.

[pepillo90]

Am I the only one who everytime that reads the title of this topic ends up singing "The wait is oveeeer"?

 

I agree that maybe she's singing IYAMT (If you asked me to, let's get familiar with it, just in case), in the acoustic picture.

 

However I don't have my hopes too high. Well they are... but I know her team (or at least her old team).

 

Can't wait!!!

Edited August 26, 2015 at 02:59 PM by pepillo90

[tomdalbou]

The way she is standing on the picture is definitely not "The first time".

 

Was thinking of "If you asked me too"... when she sings the end " I 've changed my mind" on the live version...

 

IYAMT, TT, TLYM, BYLM, TFTEISYF as an accoutic medley...

And why not add TPOL.

[Timster]

It's a shame in the ET interview she was talking about cutting verses. I hope the new songs will be done in full.

[SuperLove4Celine]

It's a shame in the ET interview she was talking about cutting verses. I hope the new songs will be done in full.

 

Agreed. I'd rather have less songs sung in full than more butchered songs. Sometimes, less is more.

[LeChauffeur100]

We do I think just not in full. Mr. Paganini and the Bond Medley were shown during the Oprah special and I know Bond medley was featured in quite a few of the rehearsal/opening night clips we got

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dgc62wNyrfY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7Kouco0pa4

 

Yes, I wish we had them in full. I'd like to see specially Live and Let Die.

[Timster]

Agreed. I'd rather have less songs sung in full than more butchered songs. Sometimes, less is more.

 

In the 90s everything was in full unless it formed part of a medley (like the LTAL Tour acoustic medley and the FIY 'early hits segment'). Now it's almost every song that is cut (for her English catalogue, of course!)

[powerofamor17]

It's a shame in the ET interview she was talking about cutting verses. I hope the new songs will be done in full.

Did she say that? I don't remember.

[stevo]

''Dion was so happy to be a first-time mother when her Colosseum career began in 2003 that in her interviews, the actual show sounded like an afterthought; creative decisions seemed like they were left to Angelil and others..."

 

OMG YEEEEEES! It certainly was...now is HER time. Arise, Céline THE ARTIST

[tomdalbou]

Did she say that? I don't remember.

 

Yes, she said that the show was 12 minutes too long and they had to cut songs.

[powerofamor17]

 

 

Yes, she said that the show was 12 minutes too long and they had to cut songs.

I just saw that. Thanks for that. I dont get it though, she should be able to make it as long as she wants.

 

THE COLOSSEUM WAS BUILT FOR HER!!!

[kevincheung410]

Celine Dion @ Entertainment Tonight, CBS, 2015-08-25

 

[flash=860,524]http://player.youku.com/player.php/sid/XMTMxOTU3ODA2OA==/v.swf

 

Video downloaded from Nabbox/JeanGuy

[CelineDionFreak]

Her team just put this up today:

"For Celine’s return to the stage of the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, stylist Annie Horth knocked on the doors of the largest design houses in the world: Atelier Versace, Schiaparelli, Elie Saab, Mugler and Zuhair Murad. - Team Celine"

That's 5 designers, and Annie said 4 costumes. I wonder if they've added a costume in?!? I am SO anxious to see what she's come up with!

Edited August 26, 2015 at 04:14 PM by CelineDionFreak